Visit DEP at PARK(ing) Day on September 15th

The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proud to be part of PARK(ing) Day, which will be held this year on Friday, September 15, 2017 in Bethesda and Silver Spring.

Celebrate International PARK(ing) Day and Rethink Your Transportation Choices!

PARK(ing) Day is an worldwide, annual event that gives residents, businesses and organizations an opportunity to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into fun, park-like spots that stimulate conversations about how we use our urban landscape. We hope PARK(ing) Day will encourage people to rethink their transportation choices and support infrastructure that is more transit-oriented, bikeable and walkable!

What is Parking Day?

PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco.

Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world. Read more about the original PARK(ing) installation on the Rebar website, or to delve deeper into the theoretical framework of the project, consider downloading the PARK(ing) Day Manifesto.

Our PARK(ing) Day display in 2016

Stroll the sidewalks and chat with staff from DOT, DGS, WSSC, Parks Department and others.

Representatives from Bach to Rock, Bethesda Green, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Dewberry, Department of Transportation, Equinox, Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission, Toole Design Group and and Van Epern Public Relations will be there to support the mission of PARK(ing) Day which is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat.

DEP’s PARK(ing) Day display will be located next to Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring. We’ll have a model rain garden, permeable pavers, and rain barrels. The rain barrels are painted with chalk paint so kids can draw on them. Joining DEP at their display will be WSSC.

(1) Comments

David S Kosterlitz •
Sep 11, 2017

The WMAL site should be a park. A lawsuit has been filed to require compliance with plant preservation, which could result in reducing the density of the project. But that does not go far enough. I just wrote to our Wyngate Citizens Assoc president, Ross Capon, whose listserve news item informed me of the lawsuit against Toll Brothers in regard to this development site:

David Kosterlitz
10:26 PM (13 minutes ago)

to railcapon
Hi Ross,

To me, this is great news, both the lawsuit and WCA’s endorsement of it. Anything to reduce the planned density would be welcome and I hope the lawsuit is successful in doing so.

The only thing better would be if that property could be turned into a tasteful and peaceful nature park with native and selected other plants and managed by the folks who manage Brookside Gardens and McCryllis Gardens. I am allowed to dream, right?

I’ve gone walking around that property a couple of times in recent weeks. It is so rare to see a patch of open land as nice as that within the urban area near our neighborhood. We urban dwellers need some measure of peace, serenity, quiet exercise and open space.

At the Wyngate version of the National Night Out this summer, I spoke to Ike Leggett who said that the county had tried to buy that land for a park, but that it got too expensive. Maybe Toll Brothers could donate the land to the county and find out if they can perhaps get some kind of tax credit.

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